How to Get Rid of High Blood Pressure at Home Naturally

How to Get Rid of High Blood Pressure at Home Naturally

The other day, during a routine medical checkup, your blood pressure reading was taken, and your report indicated that you had slightly elevated levels of BP. You had this cross-checked and the next report also indicated the same. You are surprised, because there are hardly any symptoms of poor health, except for an occasional headache, or slight breathlessness on brisk walking. You are also worried – you do not feel good about taking drugs to lower your BP. In fact you are right – you need not do so at all.

You can get rid of BP problem naturally. Especially in the initial stages, when the BP is only slightly high, it is not difficult to keep it within acceptable levels with changes in your diet and lifestyle.

High blood pressure or hypertension, is generally asymptomatic. A normal report would read 120/80 mm/Hg where 120 indicates the pressure in the arteries when the heart is in contracting mode, and is called the systolic BP and 80 is the pressure between heart-beats and is known as the diastolic pressure. Slight elevation in these levels does not produce any symptoms; in fact one may go through most of one’s life without being aware of the condition except through a routine checkup. But if your pressure is even 15% more than this, you may have symptoms of dizziness, blurring of vision, breathlessness and chest pain on slight exertion. In extreme cases, symptoms of stroke may manifest.

Causes:

Various factors are responsible for elevations in blood pressure, most of them relating to your diet and lifestyle. People who lead a sedentary lifestyle, or who are obese, those who smoke and are addicted to alcohol, are generally more prone to this condition. Other contributory factors include a high sodium/low potassium diet, lack of Vitamin D, heredity and high levels of certain hormones. Oral contraceptives can also cause high blood pressure.

Certain herbs taken regularly to treat other conditions, can cause high blood pressure : eg: licorice: Stress is another factor which raises BP levels abnormally.

Treatment:

It is crucial to keep your blood pressure at normal levels since continuous high blood pressure can take its toll on the arteries and consequently on heart health as also, destroy other organs of the body, such as the kidneys and the brain. However, you need not worry since a few changes in your lifestyle and diet can bring about the necessary changes in a short time:

Firstly, in the natural treatment of high BP it is important to keep the sodium consumption from all sources at not more than 2000 mg.per day. This means cutting out on all salted snacks, papads and pickles. You would also need to cut down on the use of soda bicarb. At the same time, you need to up your intake of potassium. This is easily done by eating fresh fruits and vegetables, such as watermelons, beets, tomatoes, bananas, strawberries, apricots, spinach, citrus fruits and cantaloupe. Horse chestnut, basil leaves, cod, shrimps, grains, all contain good quantities of potassium. This element maintains the acid/alkali balance in the body, as well as the balance in blood pressure, apart from keeping the nervous system healthy and ticking.

Other essential nutrients for keeping the blood pressure normal are magnesium and calcium. Both are required in small quantities, and are available in a large majority of the substances forming one’s normal diet.

Apart from the diet, you would need to pay particular attention to your lifestyle. Abstaining from alcohol and smoking will help a great deal in keeping your BP normal. Further, if you want other drug-free methods of maintaining your BP at the right level, you should consider moving out of a sedentary lifestyle, and moving about as much as possible. Simple tasks, such as mowing a lawn, or climbing stairs, or walking to the grocery store or just doing other household chores will constitute sufficient exercise for this purpose. If you can tolerate more exercise all the better.

Yoga and meditation are other ways in which you can keep your stress levels down, and consequently your BP. Keep aside some time, say 20-30 minutes a day for this purpose. It will help immensely.